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Arlene Came Early

An early start to the summer storm season may be bad news for travel and oil exploration stocks.

No one is expecting Tropical Storm Arlene, now whirling away in the Caribbean, to kick off the kind of calamity that occurred when four hurricanes touched down in the state of Florida last year. But it has to make some nervous. We're here in early June. Last year's first named storm didn't show its weather-worn face until August.

Some oil exploration companies such as BP(NYSE:BP) and Anadarko Petroleum(NYSE:APC), toiling away in the Gulf of Mexico, were already evacuating some of their nonessential employees yesterday. They saw what Hurricane Ivan did last year. Why take chances?

The trickier fretting will take place on dry land. Florida's tourism economy bounced back strongly last year despite the pesky hurricanes that damaged one out of five homes in the state. If you own shares of Home Depot(NYSE:HD) or Lowe's(NYSE:LOW), there is a financial bright side to what may be a longer than usual storm season. Plywood, generators, gas grills. They are all big sellers as residents brace for the storm.

But what about the out of towners? Disney(NYSE:DIS) is expecting a banner year. The family entertainment giant kicked off a 50th anniversary celebration at Disneyland last month -- and that has spilled over to the rest of the company's global theme park empire. General Electric's (NYSE:GE) Universal Orlando, just a few miles away, had a great 2004 at the turnstiles and is looking to piggyback on Disney's success. Tack on the various lodging, airline, casualty insurance and cruise ship operators that rely on either buoyant tourist traffic or sturdy homes in Central Florida, and it's easy to see why Arlene's early arrival, as weak as she may ultimately pan out to be, is a worrisome prospect.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz lives in Florida and was spared the brunt of last year's storms -- but he did live through Hurricane Andrew in 1992. He does own shares in Disney. The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of theRule Breakersnewsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.

Author

Rick has been writing for Motley Fool since 1995 where he's a Consumer and Tech Stocks Specialist. Yes, that's a long time with more than 20,000 bylines over those 22 years. He's been an analyst for Motley Fool Rule Breakers and a portfolio lead analyst for Motley Fool Supernova since each newsletter service's inception. He earned his BBA and MBA from the University of Miami, and he splits his time living in Miami, Florida and Celebration, Florida.
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